Following our time in Copan, we decided to travel to the small mountain town of Gracias in the highlands of Honduras.  Founded in 1526, it at one time housed the governing council for all of Central America.  With its age and history, it has much colonial charm and character with cobblestone and dirt streets and Spanish colonial churches.  Not much to do but to relax and enjoy the mountain scenery and the charming town.

We stayed at the Hotel Guancascos, which sat on a hill below the town's castle.  From its perch it enjoyed a tremendous view of the city below.  With our shutters open, this is the view from our room.  The hotel also had a great, reasonably priced, restaurant, with an open terraced dining room.

Las Mercedes, one of the Spanish colonial churches in Gracias.

Yep, another church.  This is San Marcos, off the town's main square.

Our second day in Gracias we hiked in Parque Nacional Celaque, which is heavily forested, contains much in plant and wildlife, and is also home to Honduras' highest peak.  Inside the park, near the primitive visitor's center, lives a family that owns a coffee finca (farm) and, in addition, cooks and sells meals to visitors.  We stopped in for a huge breakfast of beans, rich, eggs with potatoes, tortillas, and the best coffee we had ever tasted (seriously).  Cooking over a open flame, our chef and her family were wonderfully hospitable and our time there was a true highlight.  By the way....guess how old this woman is?

As we waited for breakfast to be prepared, the son gave us a tour of the finca.  In addition to coffee, they were growing bananas (seen here), oranges, lemons, limes, apples, chili peppers, and other various fruits and vegetables.

Here some freshly picked coffee beans sit in the sun to dry.

The Celaque National Park contains the headwaters of 11 rivers, and provided a pristine wilderness experience.  We saw only 5 other visitors during our 8 hours of hiking in the park.

Crossing the various log bridges over rivers and rapids was one of the fun parts.  Here Rich tries to keep from falling in.

Waterfall.

On the 9 km hike from the park exit to the hotel, we passed more coffee fincas.  Around 1000-2000 meters in altitude, with plenty of shade, is ideal coffee growing conditions.  Once the beans are red, they are picked to dry and then, ultimately, roasted.  The coffee plants are pretty, reminding us of the vineyards of Tuscany, Italy.

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